If you aren’t stuck in the kitchen today all day with the turkey baster or trying to figure out how to lattice your apple pie, and you aren’t parked in front of the big screen watching college teams duke it out with a pig skin, treat yourself to the sound of Alicia Keys singing (of all things) the theme from the 1980s Disney animated series and classic The Gummi Bears. You can thank the quixotic musical stylings of Jimmy Fallon for this one.

Lest you need a refresher because it’s been a while since you tuned in to the Disney Afternoon, the Gummi Bears were an ancient race of magical bears who saved the kingdom of Dunwyn with the help of a magical elixir called Gummi Beary Juice. Humans (as they tend to) tried to steal the secret of the juice and use it for evil, so the Gummi Bears broke off all ties with humanity and went into hiding, leaving later generations of humans to think of the bears as only a fairy tale or children’s story. Naturally, a young boy finds the Gummi Bears one day and teams up with them for weekly adventures against the show’s resident villain and his ogres.

What’s next? Pink doing a rendition of the theme from Darkwing Duck? Or the Jonas Brothers covering the Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers title track? Those Disney folks never stop thinking, do they?

The cast & crew of ‘Hunger Games’ is currently filming the second film in the series, ‘Catching Fire’, in Maui. The beautiful Jennifer Lawrence was spotted out & about off the film set enjoying the fruits of her work environment. The 22-year-old actress showed off her amazing bikini body as she hit the beach for a dip in warm Hawaiian waters & even got in a workout to help stay in tip-top shape.

The first film in the ‘Hunger Games’ series which hit theaters back in March grossed nearly $700 million at the box-office—that’s a nice chunk of change considering the film’s production budget was only $78 million! The second film, ‘Catching Fire’, is set for a November 23, 2013 release.

Aside from box-office blockbuster, Jennifer Lawrence is already creating Oscar buzz for her role in “Silver Linings Playbook” alongside actor Bradley Cooper. Academy Award nominations is nothing new for the young actress following previous nominations for “The Burning Plain” and “Winter’s Bone,” so maybe third time will be a charm?! Let’s hope so b/c this chick seriously kills it on the big screen, regardless of whether she’s doing a cookie-cutter action flick or an indy drama.

For a movie that’s about the so-called “guardians” of all the things children hold dear (Christmas, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, money from Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman who brings them nights of comfort and rest), Rise of the Guardians is decidedly old school. This is both a good and bad thing for the movie: yes, it’s a heartwarming traditionalist ode to all things old and familiar (like patriarchal heroes of our favorite holidays), but it also has a decided lack of diversity which leaves you scratching your head in 2012. Almost all of the major characters in the film are white males who speak of themselves in dark, groveling, self-serious tones that tell us only they can save the world and its holiday cheer. Um, okay, but, didn’t we just emerge from a bruising presidential election that told us – definitively – that the new name of the game of Diversity?

Some will think that it’s silly to harp on an animated film for presenting such an extinct view of heroism: but in the modern era of Brave, Ponyo, and The Princess and the Frog, kids want to see characters on screen that look like them and their friends. So do their parents.

Consider the story, and tell me if you agree: 300 years into an alliance between Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin with a Russian accent), The Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman (known in the film as North, Bunny, Tooth, and Sand), their boss (the Man in the Moon) decides to add a fifth to the legendary alliance: a hip, young, white haired skateboarding groovy dude named Jack Frost (voiced by Chris Pine) who has no idea why he was picked or what he’s supposed to do.

Jack doesn’t have much time to figure it all out because the big baddie in the scenario named Pitch (voiced by Jude Law) has decided that the world’s little girls and boys are too happy for his liking and that their joy must be crushed before the onset of the next holiday season. So Jack must learn his purpose while on the biggest and most daring adventure the alliance has ever faced. We know how it will end, so we just want to enjoy the ride. The animation and visual spectacle are admittedly stunning, but the narrative never catches up to the strength of the film’s technical finesse. In that sense, it disappoints. It might also be worth noting for the producing team (which also made Dreamworks’ winning How to Train Your Dragon) that it might be time to invent newer, more inclusive holiday traditions.

Simon Cowell, the group’s pimp behind the scenes, must be making a killing w/ these guys! God damn!

After seeing the numbers, Simon Cowell’s Syco is indeed making a nice stash. According to the group’s Wiki, “combined music, merchandising, and touring sales, according to Nick Gatfield, the chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment UK, as of June 2012, One Direction represented a $50 million business empire.” They’re much bigger than they were in June, so we’re gonna assume that number is up to at least $60 million by now. Pretty fucking crazy for a bunch of guys Simon bagged for only £2 million back in January, 2011.

All this cash definitely explains why he’s driving around in a Bugatti these days…

Even with all their earning potential, I take offense when certain media outlets go overboard, like for example The Huffington Post did earlier this year by proclaiming 2012 as “The Year of One Direction”. What the fuck? You’re going to base the entire year on A) How much money a boy band generates & B) How many little girls are willing to drop everything in their lives (i.e. school) & obsesses over five guys? Really? What about everyone else in society?

For those of you who have nothing better to do on this Thanksgiving morning, why not read about the group’s humble beginnings on ‘X Factor’ (via Wikipedia):

In 2010, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson auditioned as solo candidates for the seventh series of British television reality singing competition The X Factor.[3] Failing to progress to the “Boys” category at “judges’ houses”, after a suggestion by guest judge Nicole Scherzinger,[3] they were put together to form a five-piece boy band at Wembley Arena, London, England, July 2010, during the “bootcamp” stage of the competition,[4] thus qualifying for the “Groups” category. Subsequently, the group got together for two weeks to get to know each other and to practise.[5][6] Styles came up with the name One Direction as he wanted the group to go in “One Direction” in winning the competition.[5] For their qualifying song at “judges’ houses”, and their first song as a group, One Direction sang an acoustic version of “Torn”.[7] In the live shows within four weeks, they were Simon Cowell’s last act in the competition.[8] The group quickly gained popularity in the UK.[2] One Direction finished in third place and immediately after the final, their song “Forever Young”, which would have been released if they had won The X Factor, was leaked onto the internet.[9] Shortly afterwards it was confirmed, One Direction had been signed by Cowell to a reported £2 million Syco Records record contract[10][11] An One Direction-licensed book, One Direction: Forever Young (Our Official X Factor Story), was published by HarperCollins in February 2011,[12] subsequently topping The Sunday Times Best Seller list.[13] One Direction became the brand ambassadors for Pokémon Black and White and launched limited edition Nokia C2-02 and Nokia C3-00 phones in April 2011.[14][15] Recording for their debut album began in January 2011, as they flew to Los Angeles to work with producer RedOne.[16] In February 2012, One Direction and other contestants from the series participated in the X Factor Live Tour.[17] The tour saw the group performing for 500,000 people throughout the UK.[18] After the tour concluded in April 2011, the group continued working on their debut album,[16] recording took place in Sweden, UK, and the United States, as One Direction worked with producers Carl Falk, Savan Kotecha, Steve Mac, and Rami Yacoub, among others.[19][20]